Wondrous Workflows

Just as the success of a printing firm is based on strategies built for speed and connectivity, a digital workflow is key to driving data flow and integrating processes and systems across the supply chain to reduce cycle time, save money, and encourage customer loyalty by making it easier to do business.

"Printing is evolving into a manufacturing operation and a science requiring much less skilled human involvement," states James Kosowski, vice president of Rapid Impressions Inc., a Broadview, Ill.-based commercial sheetfed shop. "Computers simply do things much more precisely than humans, and in a very scientific manner. Look at cars, electronics, and even computers; the natural cycle of any manufacturing operation is to produce products better, faster, and cheaper."

But, Kosowski continues, "Although we've been slow to adopt this scientific approach, the future is clear: to be in this business you have to be technology oriented, because it's technology that enables you to improve quality, work faster, and cut wasted time. If you say 'no' to embracing technology, you can bet that somebody else is going to say 'yes.' "

Rapid Impressions underwent a major technology transformation 18 months ago with the implementation of an all-digital workflow. Investments included a Creo Trendsetter/Spectrum platesetter, an Epson 9000 contract digital proofer (and later an Epson 10000), a 13x18" two-color Heidelberg Printmaster QM 46 press, and a 40" six-color MAN Roland 700 press with coater and Pecom press management system.

For its front-end digital workflow, the firm upgraded from a PCC PageFlow system to PCC Nexus.

"I'm convinced that if we hadn't made these moves when we did, we wouldn't be in business today," Kosowski asserts. "We're doing 50% more work, and we haven't added a person. In fact, we've actually cut overtime by 60% to 70%. Even our slow months today are better than our best months before; it just seems like we have less work because it goes through so efficiently with a lot less hassle."

Similarly, Donald Kopf, IT and electronic prepress manager for Coastal Printing, Inc., Sarasota, Fla., considers his firm's upgrade a year-and-a-half ago to Heidelberg and Creo's Prinergy 1.1 digital front-end a must for staying in business. The firm, which went computer-to-plate in 1989 with the installation of a Creo 3244 Trendsetter/Spectrum, previously had used a PS to Press Workflow system.

"Some customers give us a file and expect that we're going to print it today," Kopf says. "I'm not talking about small press jobs—these are 40" jobs using four, five, and six colors with coating. Today, typical job turnaround is three to five days maximum."

Kopf says that while most of the prepress hardware today does what's expected, it is the software driving the equipment that can make or break a business.

"We use Prinergy, which I think is the slickest, easiest, most idiot-proof software I've ever used," he explains. "The trapping algorithms work the way they should. The Adobe Extreme processing works the way it should. With multiple processors, we can offload work to different processors by setting up plans to balance the load. It runs on an Oracle database and works with the servers, which are doing all the heavy number crunching in the background."

He adds, "We now have three process plans that cover 99% of what we do. To me that's critical, because few people in our business understand what printing in all its complexities truly is. We knew we had to create a workflow that is process oriented."

In its effort to make a streamlined digital workflow so as to accommodate every stakeholder in the printing process, from creative through distribution, Creo recently launched its Networked Graphic Production initiative for use with Brisque and Prinergy systems. The offering comprises a series of products that link production and business systems.

"Prinergy provides a collaborative environment for everyone in the prepress area to work together in a job context, and now we're extending that to allow for collaboration with business systems and customers," explains Stan Coleman, a chief architect of Prinergy who recently has been named corporate vice president of printing workflow solutions for Creo.

"It's about taking time out of the process, avoiding mistakes with re-entry of data, and fine-tuning functions such as estimating, billing, inventory management, and scheduling," Coleman says.

One component within Creo's Networked Graphic Production offering is the company's newly introduced Synapse InSite software that affords interaction with customers over the Internet.

InSite is connected to a printer's Brisque or Prinergy workflow to facilitate on-line job submission, remote proofing, approvals, and change requests. Internet connectivity permits remote job submission directly into the production workflow, while collaborative tools allow creative and technical staff to review jobs simultaneously.

Recognized as the first high-end automated prepress workflow solution, Dalim's eight-year-old Twist workflow also has two new modules—Twist Dialogue and Twist Weblink—that permit the on-line remote and collaborative viewing of files. Among client-side benefits, users can view and approve pages, check production parameters, and take on-screen densitometer measurements.

"Not only can users submit and preflight files remotely via a Web browser and then view a final job either RIPped or prior to being RIPped in high resolution, they also have at their disposal administrative capabilities prior to the workflow," explains Dalim marketing manager Gee Ranashinha. "Before, the client had to rely on an operator to actually modify jobs that either had been sent within the company or from an outside customer."

Ranashinha stresses that because Twist is not connected with any hardware vendor, it maintains a high degree of flexibility, allowing users to freely pick from 150 tools that Dalim has developed to satisfy specific workflow needs. "We're totally open on file formats, output devices, and the actual workflow model that the end user would like to put together."

Esko-Graphics's FastLane workflow system, formerly a Barco system before the company merged with Purup-Eskofot earlier this year, features a new set of tools that provides solutions to solve specific problems and catch errors as early as possible in the workflow.

"For example, we offer tools that are designed to deal with problems in double-burn workflow, changing just the black plates for different-language versions in short-run jobs," says Freddy Pieters, product manager for FastLane, which is the workflow selected for future development by Esko-Graphics management.

TrueFlow (Purup-Eskofot's workflow) will be supported for another year or two before being phased out, reports Pieters.

Agfa's new JDF-based Apogee X workflow software, introduced in April at the Ipex 2002 event held in the United Kingdom, is promoted for its increased scalability and ability to connect seamlessly with the Web for the remote approval of pages or imposed flats.

Based on a client-server architecture and using an intuitive interface, Apogee X centralizes processing for performance on one or multiple servers and can be integrated into any workflow incrementally, one module at a time. The offering will become commercially available in September.

The use of metadata and JDF—the open, extensible, XML-based print workflow specification framework that allows vital information about a job to pass freely throughout the print supply chain—is viewed widely throughout the industry as the key not only to maximizing workflow automation, but also to creating a computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) environment within the graphic arts. JDF, many believe, is the glue that binds integrated workflow software solutions to one another.

"As a printing company moves down the path to an all-digital workflow, data islands form, but it's hard to see them coming without prior knowledge on how to avoid them," explains David Minnick, digital operations manager for St. Ives-Cleveland. Minnick, who possesses expertise in the development of workflows and automating prepress systems, says that St. Ives uses a Rampage RIPping workflow system, a Hagen OA data management system, and CIP3 closed-loop color control for the pressroom..

"Data islands are pockets of information that should be shared with all, but, in creation, are kept to a specific area," he explains. "This also usually means that data is duplicated in many areas, the most common area being between customer service and prepress.

"To avoid data islands, databases must be used that can talk to each other and share their data, and this is where JDF is a must. If we're ever going to bring back printing's status as a leading industry in a global marketplace, JDF must be required of our vendors and utilized by printers."

In an article on sheetfed press trends prepared for the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation's Technology Forecast 2002 Report, industry consultant C. Clint Bolte suggests that many printers are backing into CIM, which Bolte defines as an integration backbone supporting end-to-end enterprise-wide production processes, with processes and equipment that meet unique requirements.

"This reactive CIM compatibility may soon be proactive or, stated more bluntly, it may not be long before a full strategic CIM initiative may be required to remain profitable," states Bolte.

Rick Littrell, principal of the Littrell & Associates consultancy, believes that while the industry is starting to see glimmers of hope, CIM is still very much in its infancy.

"We're getting there, but the issue becomes how broad the path is from the customer to the loading dock, or if this distance exists simply in prepress," says Littrell, who moderated a panel discussion on product automation and CIM at the March Vue/Point 2002 event held in Washington, D.C.

"You have to take into account the remote aspect—the designers who don't live on the premises," he continues. "They may be 500 miles away, and trying to connect to them puts a lot of burden on any kind of automation structure. It's not unmanageable, but it certainly requires more communication. This is where it becomes very sticky: how can you trust somebody to do the right thing if you can't see them?

"Also, the manufacturers have to play nice with one another," Littrell concludes. "It goes back to having standards in place, and we're seeing this with CIP4 and JDF coming around, and XML now being discussed. The ingredients for the glue are there, but it's a very large project."